Etymologically
Log in

calliditas

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 02:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

calliditās f (genitive calliditātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin callidus (“clever, crafty”) + -tās.[2][1][3] The OLD derives callidus from calleō “to be hard; to know how”, which de Vaan derives from callum “hard skin”, perhaps from an adjective Proto-Italic *kaln/so- (“hard”); he finds its Indo-European origin uncertain.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Terence,[5] who has the plural.[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is used in a good and a bad sense.[6] In a good sense it is cleverness, skill: the Rhetorica ad Herennium defines prudence as the cleverness that can choose between good and bad, and Nepos speaks of cleverness of mind.[2][6] More often it is craftiness or cunning, and in the plural subtle tricks: Cicero says a man's head and shaven eyebrows seem to smell of malice and cry out cunning.[2] Cicero also says that knowledge divorced from justice should be called cunning rather than wisdom, after Plato.[3] Glosses render it with Ancient Greek πανουργία (panourgía, “knavery”) and ⟨astūtia⟩.[3] Church Latin glosses it craftiness.[7]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cunning.[2][3][5]
  • c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of cleverness of mind.[6][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Cleverness, skill, shrewdness.[2][6][1]
  2. Craftiness, cunning, slyness;[2][6][1][7] (plural) subtle tricks.[2][6][1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson